Belle Vernon’s depth, press lead Leopards over McGuffey
Belle Vernon’s Griffin LaCarte drives the ball around McGuffy’s Andrew Allender. LaCarte scored 14 points in the win.
McGuffy’s CJ Cole looks to make a pass around Belle Vernon’s Christian Murphy. Cole scored 11 points in the loss.
McGuffey’s Andrew Allender controls the ball for the Highlanders while being guarded by Belle Vernon’s Griffin LaCarte.
CLAYSVILLE – When a basketball team’s best player scores 25 points and grabs 20 rebounds, that team is supposed to win.
Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@observer-reporter.com
Belle Vernon head coach Kyle DeGregorio said a deep bench and a press defense led his Leopards to a 64-53 win over McGuffey.
After its game Tuesday night, McGuffey boys head coach Mike Fatigante said his team lost its “composure,” yet he didn’t quite have a reason for how his team blew a nine-point halftime lead – and wasted Trent Belleville’s monster 25-point, 20-rebound night – to lose at home to Section 3-AAAA rival Belle Vernon, 64-53.
“I don’t have an answer for you,” Fatigante said. “If I knew what it was, I would have stopped it.”
Here are three reasons how the Leopards came back to win the game handily:
Belleville
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
McGuffey’s Trent Belleville scores against Belle Vernon’s Derek Thomas during a Section 3-AAAA game at McGuffey High School. Belleville scored 25 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in the loss.
Belleville probably played the best game of his career, but it was even moreso the best first half of his career.
The senior scored six of McGuffey’s 12 first-quarter points, as the Highlanders (2-2, 9-3) and Belle Vernon (4-1, 8-4) were tied after the quarter.
Belleville then channeled an inner power in the second quarter, scoring 11 points, as the Highlanders led 31-23 at halftime. It wasn’t just scoring for Belleville as the 6-2 forward grabbed 12 rebounds in the first half.
But Belleville came back down to earth in the second half. The double teams turned into triple teams, he didn’t make nearly every shot as he did in the first half and he looked tired, like a player who could no longer carry the rest of his teammates.
“He had a heck of a game tonight on both ends of the floor: scoring, rebounding and defense,” Fatigante said. “It takes an entire team, and we didn’t get it done tonight.”
He still put up eight points and grabbed eight rebounds in the second half to finish with a rare statline of 25 points and 20 rebounds. It would have been an even better performance, if not a win for the Highlanders, if the offense had more scoring opportunities in the second half.
Turnovers
While the Leopards played a press defense in the first half, the aggressive scheme took a new life in the second half, forcing about 15 McGuffey turnovers, most of which took place in the backcourt.
The inordinate amount of turnovers led the Leopards to go on a 23-9 run in the third quarter to lead by six points going into the fourth quarter, during which the Leopards then outscored the Highlanders 18-13.
Belle Vernon head coach Kyle DeGregorio said it was the intent his team played with in the second half that changed the game.
“I don’t think we played with the desperation in the first half that we played with in the second half,” he said. “When we elevated our level of intensity and focus I thought that was the difference.”
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon’s Bryce Washington tries for a layup against McGuffey’s Trent Belleville and Chase Miller (32) Tuesday during a Section 3-AAAA game. Washington scored 14 points in the win.
Belle Vernon senior Bryce Washington, who scored 14 points, said DeGregorio made it a focus at halftime to talk about the press defense.
“Our pressure on defense in the first half was really soft,” Washington said. “Coach chewed us out at halftime … so we cranked up the pressure and they turned the ball over just like coach said they would.”
Fatigante said committing turnovers hurt his team in the second half as that led to easy points for the Leopards.
“A lot of their easy baskets in the second half were off of our turnovers,” Fatigante said. “We can’t have live ball turnovers. When we turn it over in a live ball situation, it leads directly to two points. In the second half, that’s what happened, and that’s why they got a lot of easy buckets.”
Numbers game
DeGregorio said his depth led to some of the turnovers in the second half as his players were more fresh than McGuffey’s.
”(Fatigante) doesn’t have the numbers that I have,” DeGregorio said. “In the middle of the third quarter, you could see they were losing their legs. I’ve got three different guys guarding (Belleville), and he doesn’t get a break. I’ve got three guys playing about 20 minutes, and he’s playing 32 minutes. That’s a big difference.”
While Fatigante admitted his players may have been fatigued, he said, “I’m not going to let our guys off the hook like that.”
“Our guys were a little fatigued, but there’s no reason why we lost our composure like that other than that it’s on us,” he said. “I give them credit, because they played really well. But we lost our composure and didn’t execute our game plan.”
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Belle Vernon’s Joe Sabolek scores two against McGuffy’s Chase Miller.
Eight different Leopards scored in the game, with five scoring eight or more points, while McGuffey only had five players score.
DeGregorio said this is his team’s first time playing without two or more players missing to injuries in the last month.
He also said he has nine seniors that have been instrumental this season. Seniors Griffin LeCarte and Joe Sabolek both chipped in with 14 and 12 points, respectively, while 60 of Belle Vernon’s 64 points came from seniors.
“I’ve got nine seniors that have been with me for four years,” DeGregorio said about his seniors that have led the Leopards to first place in the section. “They’re the cornerstone of our program, and they have been since I got here. I have a lot of belief in all of them.”